Torres 2010 “Viña Esmeralda” Moscato (Cataluña) – Sweet, simple, friendly, boring in a very predictable way. I’m glad for the world’s commercial wine ventures that muscat’s popularity is exploding, because drinkable muscat is something all but the truly incompetent can pretty much make in their sleep. And if it means grafting over a few zillion acres of useless chardonnay, all the better. (2/12)
Browse Tag
white
Marestel bliss
Domaine Dupasquier 2004 Roussette de Savoie Altesse “Marestel” (Savoie) – Like drinking a wrench. An adjustable wrench. Firm columns of minerals in motion, circling a melting core of ice. See? A wrench! (11/11)
Green Panama
Schloss Johannisberg 2001 Schloss Johannisberger Grünlack Spätlese Riesling 009 02 (Rheingau) – Powerful. In the battle between molten metal and Cream of Age, the skyscraper material is winning. Not at all dry, no, but there’s so much liquid steel and seething acidic lightning here that it’s difficult to notice or care much. And yet, it’s not – in the pantheon of German riesling – all that acidic, given the place and time whence it hails. The balance is, right now, just about perfect, but I think it’s very far from full maturity. Nonetheless, it’s ready for exploratory encounters, should one now wish to begin same. (2/12)
Oy
Brocard 2008 Chablis 1er Cru Vau de Vey (Chablis) – Chardonnay. By which I mean: yes, it’s ostensibly Chablis, but really it’s just French chardonnay with a restrained hand on the manipulative tiller, in the very tiny pond through which the captain of this wine is motivated to navigate. (11/11)
Mr. Latte
Feuillatte Champagne Brut “Réserve Particulière” (Champagne) – Broad and uninteresting, its cute little apple and ripe lemon decorations ultimately adorning nothing of actual substance. (11/11)
Jar-Jar
Cowan Cellars 2010 “Isa” (Lake County) – Airy pomegranate with a silky texture. Dense, long, and sandy, like drinking a desert wind. This is very accomplished. (11/11)
Fjords
Cowan Cellars 2008 Sauvignon Blanc Silver Pines (Sonoma Mountain) – Thick, with light apricot sweetness and a sorbet texture (which is not to imply residual sugar or the simulacrum thereof beyond that previously indicated). Frankly, this reminds me rather powerfully of Radikon’s early efforts. That’s a compliment. But it’s not an entirely complete wine. (11/11)
Grin & vers it
Luquet 2009 Saint-Véran “Vers Les Monts” (Burgundy) – Characterful…whether site or maker I can’t say (probably both)…with fulsome citrus aromatics and Makrut lime leaves, sweet tea, and a deft use of cooperage. (1/12)
Big lamb, little lamb
Métaireau “Domaine du Grand Mouton” 2010 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Sur Lie “Petit Mouton” (Loire) – Muscadet-by-the-numbers. Abraded shells and slightly saline acidity, light-bodied, clean and soon absent. Frankly, I expect more from this producer. (11/11)
Take it on the Chêne
Saumon 2009 Montlouis-sur-Loire Le Clos de Chêne (Loire) – I struggle with this wine, which seems surly and imbalanced…not in conception, necessarily, but as if it’s throwing a kind of tantrum. Waxed minerals, pollen, white petals, tenderness, but not one of these elements is willing to play with, or even look at, the others. I’ll wait for a bottle that’s had its nap, or is at least free of colic, before saying more. (11/11)